RUTHFULLY YOURS

On December 17, 2019 Democrat & Chronicle, a publication affiliated with USA Today, published this extremely worrisome report: ICE, Border Patrol had access to NY’s DMV database. With a new license law, now they don’t.

Here is how that report begins:

ALBANY, N.Y. – Federal immigration and border officials have been blocked from New York’s DMV database, a move that keeps them from accessing data that can be used to help determine whether a vehicle owner has a criminal history or a warrant for their arrest.

New York’s Green Light Law took effect Saturday, allowing those without legal immigration status to apply for driver’s licenses in New York.

But the law also included a provision prohibiting state DMV officials from providing any of its data to entities that enforce immigration law unless a judge orders them to, leading the state to cut off database access to at least three federal agencies last week.

Among them were U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP — which patrols the U.S.-Canada border in New York — and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Providing illegal aliens with driver’s licenses is reckless beyond belief, and reverses a previous policy that had been implemented in the wake of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

I detailed some of my more salient concerns about the dangers inherent in providing illegal aliens with driver’s licenses in my earlier article, “New York Will Provide Illegal Aliens With Driver’s Licenses.”

Now I want to call your attention to a paragraph from the official report, 9/11 and  Terrorist Travel – Staff Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States:

Exploring the Link between Human Smugglers and Terrorists

In July 2001, the CIA warned of a possible link between human smugglers and terrorist groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Egyptian Islamic Jihad.  Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that since 1999 human smugglers have facilitated the travel of terrorists associated with more than a dozen extremist groups. With their global reach and connections to fraudulent document vendors and corrupt government officials, human smugglers clearly have the “credentials” necessary to aid terrorist travel.

It is clear that bogus identity documents can serve as camouflage for criminals and terrorists and that providing illegal aliens with official identity documents when their true identities may be unknown and unknowable directly undermines national security and public safety.  It is in direct conflict with the findings and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

Then there is this brief paragraph from that report:

Mohammed Salameh, who rented the truck used in the bombing, overstayed his tourist visa. He then applied for permanent residency under the agricultural workers program, but was rejected. Eyad Mahmoud Ismail, who drove the van containing the bomb, took English-language classes at Wichita State University in Kansas on a student visa; after he dropped out, he remained in the United States out of status.

The unavoidable fact is that an illegal alien terrorist was able to rent the truck that was used in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and another illegal alien terrorist drove that bomb-laden vehicle. For terrorists around the world, motor vehicles have become their weapon of choice for deadly terror attacks. Consider the August 20, 2018 CNN report, Terrorist Attacks by Vehicle Fast Facts.

New York City experienced such a deadly terror attack on October 31, 2017 on the Westside Highway just block from what came to be known as “Ground Zero.”

Ironically, on October 31, 2019 CBS News in New York reported, 2 Years Later, NYPD Says Halloween Terror Attack Along West Side Highway Still Fresh On Its Mind.

While it detailed how, in response to the attack Westside Highway terror attack, barriers were being erected to protect pedestrians from future such attacks, we now see that barriers to the driver’s seat for possible terrorists have been willfully removed even though the 2017 Halloween Terror attack is still “fresh in the mind of the NYPD!”

But it has gotten worse — unfathomably worse. The so-called “Green Light Law” not only requires that DMV personnel issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, but also prevents any and all information contained in the databases of the New York State DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) from being provided to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection), compromising and obstructing their ability to carry out their vital duties.

On December 19, 2019 USA Today published a report, New York law lets undocumented immigrants apply for driver’s licenses, blocks ICE access that included this explanation for the “reasoning” behind the decision to block ICE and CBP from accessing the DMV database:

The law reversed the state’s post-9/11 policy of denying driving privileges to immigrants without legal immigration status.State lawmakers inserted the data-blocking provision into the bill a week before it passed, when immigrant organizations and Cuomo expressed concern that ICE and CBP would be able to easily obtain information about immigrants seeking a license, perhaps making it easier for them to be deported.

Specifically, the provision says DMV “shall not disclose” any records or information to “any agency that primarily enforces immigration law.

“The only exceptions are if the DMV commissioner is served with “a lawful court order or judicial warrant,” according to the law. Even then, the DMV has to notify the person at the center of a federal agency’s inquiry within three days.

This “Green Light Law” will obstruct criminal investigations and aid and abet alien and drug smugglers and human traffickers.

ICE agents also conduct vehicle stops as part of their investigative assignments to combat a wide variety of serious crimes that include, but are not limited to, violations of our immigration laws.

Criminals who engage in human trafficking and/or drug smuggling virtually universally own and/or drive motor vehicles as an integral part of their crimes. Indeed, under 8 U.S.C. § 1324 – U.S. Code, transporting an illegal alien is a felony comprehended within the statutes concerning alien smuggling and harboring.

DMV records are vital to determining who the co-conspirators are in human trafficking and drug-smuggling criminal enterprises. Without DMV records the owners of vehicles used in these crimes will be shielded from ICE and Border Patrol agents and thus escape detection and prosecution.

This law has the potential to get Border Patrol and ICE agents badly injured or killed.

Border Patrol agents patrol the borders of the United States and, in their mission of interdicting illegal aliens and narcotics and other contraband, routinely stop countless vehicles along the northern and southern borders of the United States. Motor vehicles stops are among the most dangerous activities that law enforcement officers do. I have been involved in numerous vehicle stops and I can attest to how risky such stops are, although they are a routine part of law enforcement work.

ICE agents also conduct vehicle stops as part of their investigative assignments to combat  a wide variety of serious crimes that include but are not limited to violations of our immigration laws.

Any time police officers or federal agents prepare to make a vehicle stop, they radio in the license plate and description of the vehicle to determine if the plates match the car, to determine if the registered owner has an outstanding warrant, or to obtain other relevant vital information. If, for example the registered owner is the subject of an active warrant or the vehicle has been reported stolen, the officer will likely call for backup. Without that vital information, the Border Patrol or ICE agent making that stop may be walking into a nightmare scenario that may cost that agent his or her life!

There is another important matter to consider: CBP agents and ICE agents frequently encounter individuals who are the subject of active warrants by the NYPD or other law enforcement agencies. When such individuals are located, they are taken into custody and held for the law enforcement agency that posted the warrant in the database.

In fact, many of the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” are encountered by other law enforcement agencies doing car stops.

Without access to the database such fugitives, wanted by the NYPD, New York State Police or other police agencies within the state of New York will not be stopped and continue on their way, perhaps to commit more crimes and kill or injure more innocent victims.

But this is clearly of no concern for New York Governor or legislature. I guess they think of dead victims as “collateral damage,” or perhaps speed bumps on the road to their corrupt political objectives.